A couple of weeks ago I announced the .NET Extensions Helper open source library. I figured it was time for a more complete walkthrough so this post will show a video of how to get the library and use it to embed a .NET UserControl on a SalesLogix account tab. Let's take a look.

One of the many great things about developing for the SalesLogix Windows client using .NET Extensions is that you are able to unit test your code. However, since .NET Extensions are passed references to the running instance of SalesLogix, it's important to be able to mock those objects so you can test properly. Best of all, this also allows you to fully test and debug within Visual Studio without the need to have SalesLogix even running.

If you're working in the SalesLogix Windows (LAN) client, why not make as most use as possible of a modern development environment, language, and tools? The SalesLogix .NET Extensions feature in the SalesLogix Windows client is one of the best, and likely least used, features in the SalesLogix Windows client development story. A choice bewteen using an out-dated development environment and VBScript, with no possibility of using source control or a true multi-developer experience verses using Visual Studio, with source control, a modern language and framework where the sky is the limit? I'll take the latter any day. Still not convinced? The .NET Extensions Helper library comes to the rescue. This new open source project from Customer FX will make embedding .NET controls in SalesLogix a breeze.

In my last post, I shared some code in VBScript to PING a remote server to check for availability before attempting to use a resource on that remote server. This wouldn't be my blog if I didn't also share this code in C# as well. IMO, this sort of thing is a far better suited for a .NET Extension if for the SalesLogix Windows client.

Many people who customize SalesLogix have become accustomed to using the built in "SLX Database Support" script to provide things like the quick and easy GetField function to return a single database value. If you've ventured into the .NET Extensions realm, you might want an easy equivalent. The following is a repost of something I posted around a year ago in the Sage Business Partner newsgroups

The question of how to debug a .NET Extension has come up a few times in the SalesLogix Business Partner newsgroups as well as on the slxdeveloper.com forums. I've answered this a few times in those locations, so this might be a repeat of info for some, but I did think it was worthwhile to post again here as well.

The next version of SalesLogix (v7) will include support for executing .NET 2.0 code in SalesLogix. You run code from .NET assemblies, load forms into SalesLogix, and just about anything else. This is an awesome addition to SalesLogix for the developer that wants to get outside the “Architect box”. Here's a short sample (I'll be posting a lot more of these, but I need to make sure I won't get in trouble with any non-disclosures and beta agreements)...